Poll results: Gambling Commission should regulate sports spread betting
Four in five eGR readers believe the regulator of UK fixed-odds operators should assume control of sports spread betting from the FCA
A conclusive 80% of eGaming Review readers believe the responsibility for sports spread betting in the UK should be transferred to the Gambling Commission.
At present, responsibility for regulating the two sports spread betting businesses, Sporting Index and Spreadex, currently sits with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
However, this set-up has come under scrutiny of late following a series of debates related to the Gambling Bill as it makes its way through parliament.
During last week’s third reading of the Bill, Labour shadow sports minister Clive Efford called for UK sports spread betting to be transferred to the watchful eye of the Commission, stating the current system to be an “anomaly” which needed rectifying.
The proposal was deemed unnecessary by sports minister Helen Grant, who argued that measures planned to be carried out by the FCA would see it become closely aligned with the Commission.
Yet 80% of respondents to this week’s poll disagreed with the minister and instead sided with Efford’s call to relieve the FCA of its sports spread betting duties.
Only one in five felt that the FCA should continue in its role as sports spread betting regulator and, unless the House of Lords, which is to inspect the Bill in the coming weeks, disagrees, this seems certain to continue.